Born in 1922 in Walsall, Staffordshire to Arthur Ford Ennals and his wife Jessie Edith Taylor, Ennals was educated at Queen Mary's Grammar School, Walsall and the Loomis Institute in Windsor, Connecticut on a one-year student exchange scholarship.

In Wolverhampton on his nineteenth birthday, 19 August 1941, he enlisted in the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) and joined 9th Training Battalion (Drivers) at Alfreton.

Landing in Normandy on D-Day, 6 June 1944, Lieutenant Ennals commanded a Contact Detachment providing wireless links between units.

[14] Ennals returned to parliament representing Norwich North following the February 1974 general election and was appointed Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs.

After losing his seat in the general election of 1983, he was created a life peer, as Baron Ennals, of Norwich in the County of Norfolk.

[16][17] Following his exit from parliament in 1970, Ennals became Campaign Director for the National Association for Mental Health (MIND), which he served as until 1973.

[18] In 1987 Lord Ennals went on a parliamentary fact-finding mission to Tibet and on his return to the UK he became a tireless campaigner for Tibetan independence and a friend of the 14th Dalai Lama.